CASE STUDY: SODEXO

Starting Fresh   

Sodexo launched its Starting Fresh programme in 2023 to support employers in proactively recruiting skilled and qualified people with criminal convictions.  

Sodexo has been running prisons in the UK for 30 years, and is committed to rehabilitating offenders by providing employment, education and rehabilitation services. These give them the skills, qualifications and support to lead law-abiding lives in their community on release. 

In 2023, Sodexo released research which showed that, while one in three UK private sector businesses did not, at that time, believe they employed any ex-offenders, 62% were struggling to fill job vacancies.  

The research also showed that many employers were willing to give someone with a criminal record a chance, but most had no idea they could proactively recruit directly from the talent pool within prisons.  

Starting Fresh aims to close that gap, making sure more businesses understand the skills being taught and qualifications earned in prison, and the opportunity they have to recruit prison-leavers directly through the prison with no recruitment costs. Building this awareness provides valuable employment opportunities for people leaving prison, driving social mobility and helping to reduce reoffending rates.  

Job placements have been made possible through a host of new partnerships with forward-thinking businesses like Marriott Hotels, Superdrug, Burger King, Iceland and others. 

These collaborations have included employer days, enabling businesses to meet potential employees inside the prison and learn about their skills and qualifications firsthand. 

Sodexo has also focused on creating opportunities in its own business, with a dedicated Frontline Acquisition Team leading on the recruitment of ex-offenders into the company.   

To support further change, Sodexo has been raising awareness among wider stakeholders too. This includes working with the New Futures Network to create a toolkit MPs can use to both encourage and inform employers in their constituencies to consider hiring an ex-offender.   

Starting Fresh has also been extended beyond Sodexo prisons, with information sessions held at prisons and probation offices across the country. As a result, Sodexo has been invited to run recruitment events at a further 37 prisons so far. 

In the last year, Sodexo’s Prison Employment Leads have placed more than 700 prison-leavers into sustainable employment in a wide variety of organisations, including Sodexo.

One ex-offender, Susan, took every chance she was offered during her prison sentence to improve her skills, gaining an NVQ Level 1 and 2 in maths and English, and working in a prison restaurant and call centre, before going into employment as a cleaner for Sodexo at a government office on release:  

I was used to hard work, but when you’re released on temporary license and get to do it outside of the prison gates it makes a massive difference to your mindset. For 18 months, I would leave prison at 5.30am for a 40-minute walk to catch my bus, work 8am-4pm as a cleaner and then do the same journey in reverse. They were really long days, but at lunchtime I’d be queueing up in Asda to buy a sandwich like everyone else. That little bit of independence felt like one step closer to normal life. It actually turned out to be a big step closer, as I kept that job when I was released.   

For every person recruited, the positive social impact is huge – for them personally, for the business they go on to work for, for their families and for their wider community.   

To find out more about Starting Fresh, including information on skills training and qualifications in Sodexo’s prisons; a downloadable toolkit; FAQs and other useful details for potential employers, visit the Starting Fresh hub on Sodexo’s website.